1920

1920 was the 49th year after the founding of the city of Birmingham. The United States 1920 Census showed Birmingham with a population of 178,806, of which 108,550 were white and 70,230 were black. It was also the census year with the greatest number of foreign immigrants, 2,160 of which hailed from Italy.

Sports

Works

Books

Cruikshank, George H. (1920) History of Birmingham and Its Environs: A Narrative Account of Their Historical Progress, Their People, and Their Principal Interests. 2 volumes. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company.

Context

1920 was a leap year. It was the first year of women's suffrage, and also the first year of national prohibition (an experiment already tried in Birmingham between 1908 and 1911). Babe Ruth was traded to the Yankees. The Senate blocked the United States' membership in the League of Nations while Woodrow Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its establishment. The Royal Canadian Mounted police were created. Joan of Arc was canonized. The Mexican Revolution puts Alvaro Obregon in power. Warren Harding defeated James Cox in the 1920 presidential race. British troops gunned down soccer fans in Dublin on Bloody Sunday. Those born in 1920 include Isaac Asimov, Sun Myung Moon, Federico Fellini, Ravi Shankar, Pope John Paul II, Yul Brynner, Ray Bradbury, Mickey Rooney and Dave Brubeck. 1920 saw the deaths of Amedeo Modigliani, Robert Peary, William Dean Howells, Max Weber, Peter Carl Fabergé and Gaston Chevrolet. Notable works of 1920 included Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love, Karel Čapek's play R.U.R.', Gustav Holst's The Planets, and the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.